TODAY’S READINGS
The second reading is from 2 Pt 3:8-14 . “Repentance” is the key word today.
The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard “delay,”
but he is patient with you,
not wishing that any should perish
but that all should come to repentance. (v. 9)
“The purpose of this ‘delay’ is salvation: the Lord is showing great patience, postponing the day of judgment, because he desires that all should repent and that none should perish. We can hear an echo of John 3:17 here: ‘For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be save through him.’
“What is the Lord’s disposition toward the human race? He is being ‘patient.’ The verb is in the present active tense, indicating ongoing, active patience by the Lord. He is giving space for all to come to repentance, Along with 1 Tim 2:4, this is one of the strongest biblical assertions of God’s universal desire that all come to salvation. The Lord takes no pleasure in the death of he wicked, but desires repentance (Ezek 18:23); his kindness is meant to lead to repentance (Rom 2:4), and he waits to have mercy on all (Rom 11:32).” (Daniel Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude [Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture], 180-181)
Today’s Gospel gives us the opening verses of Mark (1:1-8). Continuing our repentance theme:
John the Baptist appeared in the desert
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (v. 4)
“Repentance (Greek metanoia) means literally ‘a change of mind.’ Like the prophets of old (see Isa 55:7; Jer 18:11; Zech 1:4) John was calling Israel to a wholehearted return to the Lord, a deep interior conversion through the acknowledgment of their sinful state and their need for forgiveness. The time of complacency and human self-sufficiency was over; the time to turn back to God in humble contrition had arrived. Although John’s message was hardly a soothing one, it met a spiritual hunger in the people, attracting crowds throughout Judea.” (Mary Healy, The Gospel of Mark [Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture], 32)
“The Greek word for repentance that is used here means a changing of one’s mind. It also means a feeling of remorse, an undergoing of conversion, or a changing of one’s behavior. We often focus on the aspects of remorse and behavioral change when we think of repentance. Sometimes what is needed is a change of thinking and fundamental outlook if our remorse and changed behavior are to have lasting results.” (George Martin, Bringing the Gospel of Mark to Life: Insight & Inspiration, 7)
“The baptism given by the Precursor was not Christian Baptism; it was a penitential rite; but it prefigured the dispositions needed for Christian baptism — faith in Christ, the Messiah, the source of grace, and voluntary detachment from sin.” (The Navarre Bible: St. Mark, 66)
Thank God that He doesn’t have my patience or many of us would be doomed. Our task is not to try His patience until our end so that in the end we well be welcomed home.
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St. John the Baptist by El Greco (1597-1603)
Unworthy Servant 